


Baby It's Cold Outside

by Newtgitsune



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas Party, F/M, Fluff, Hence the title, M/M, Minho's a dick but he's funny, Newt's a coward, Soulmate AU, Spin the Bottle, They play games, its christmas - Freeform, its cold, its snowing, so is thomas, ya gotta kiss someone to figure out if its your soulmate, yay parties how fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 21:37:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17009658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Newtgitsune/pseuds/Newtgitsune
Summary: Christmas parties at Minho's place always seem to get out of hand. This time, it's no different.Soulmate AU!Beta'd by comebacknow and Please_Tommy_Please! Ty guys <3





	Baby It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

> Christmas with his friends was absolutely terrifying.
> 
> Newt wouldn’t have it any other way.

His friends were planning something. Newt didn’t know what, but he was sure he would find out soon.

 

After all, it was Christmas, and Christmas with his friends was bound to get out of hand.

 

Newt remembered when they’d played truth or dare a year ago. You were allowed to pass, but when you did, you had to run around the house in your underwear. Now, that wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been 23 degrees with a foot of snow covering the streets. Combine that with Minho’s insanely large house to run around, and you’d understand why Newt had spent a week in bed with a cold that just  _ wouldn’t go away _ .

 

The year before that, Minho had organised a scavenger hunt of sorts that ended with finding him in a big box wrapped up like a Christmas present and dressed in a Santa outfit that Newt would never be able to unsee.

 

Christmas was no longer the fun holiday where you got gifts, ate until you were so stuffed you wouldn’t able to move, and would just spend a nice, wholesome holiday with your friends and family.

 

Christmas with his friends was absolutely terrifying.

 

Newt wouldn’t have it any other way.   
  


This year, they’d gathered at Minho’s place -as per usual-  and were huddled around the fireplace, bundled up in oversized ugly Christmas sweaters and fleece blankets. Newt breathed in the smell of smoke combined with the smell of their dinner roasting in the oven. The familiar scent clung to their hair and clothes, so when they’d wash their hair the next day, the smell would waft through their bathroom, reminding them of the fun night they’d had before.

 

Newt felt the fuzz of his old, red sweater itching his neck in a rather unpleasant way, but the warmth the soft fabric provided was too comfortable to take it off. Besides, everyone had their sweaters on- ranging from generic patterns, to awful puns, to sweaters that looked like a literal Christmas tree -jingle bells included-, their ugly sweaters were a tradition, and their traditions stayed. A lot of things stayed. Newt could see Thomas next to him subtly eyeing the pile of presents under the Christmas tree, and then looking away again with a giddy look on his face. 

  
Newt couldn’t help but smile. Thomas was such a child at heart; easily excitable, hyperactive, and a general idiot sometimes.   
  
_ An adorable idiot _ , his mind supplied.   
  
Newt looked away, his cheeks burning with a rosy blush. He pretended not to know if it was because of the waves of heat coming from the fireplace or because of Thomas’s presence.     
  


“Okay guys! Time for our annual game!” Minho’s voice suddenly rung through the house, coming from his open kitchen. Newt looked over his shoulder to see Minho standing there, a smug grin on his face and an empty bottle in his hand.   
  
His heart sank.   
  
“Min, we’re  _ not  _ playing Spin the Bottle.” Newt protested, but before he could even finish his sentence, the group had already gathered around Minho, forming a circle on the floor. The bottle was laying in the middle, glaring at him.   
  
“Oh for God’s sake,” Newt muttered, getting up and sitting down next to Brenda.   
  
“Come on, Newt. It’ll be fun.” Brenda nudged her shoulder against his, and Newt glanced at her other arm- her hand holding Gally’s, as always.  

 

“For you, yeah.” Newt responded. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. You already found your Soulmate. It doesn’t matter who you kiss.”   
  
One reason why Newt was so anxious for Minho’s Christmas parties was because they always involved some sort of kissing game. Either there was mistletoe literally  _ everywhere _ or they’d play games like this. 

 

Newt wasn’t superstitious. He knew the stories weren’t true.   
  
“I heard that if you kiss someone who isn’t your soulmate, it takes a life off your lifespan  _ and _ theirs!” 

  
“Well  _ I _ heard that your Soulmate will love you less if you kiss someone else before you meet them!”  

  
Newt’s life was filled with rumours like those: people who kissed others before they found their Soulmate and had something terrible happen to them the day after. Newt believed in a little something called ‘coincidence’. Other people were convinced it had something to do with the kiss.   
  
Newt didn’t put much stock in superstitions, but there was still a part of him that wanted the stories to be true, if only so he’d have a reason to feel scared of acting upon his feelings.    
  
Or so his world wouldn’t fall apart once he found out he wasn’t  _ his _ Soulmate. 

 

You see, there was only one way to find out who your Soulmate was, and that was by kissing them. 

 

But of course, because people have a habit of turning good things into terrible ones, this whole Soulmate Deal came with superstitions, rumours, and a whole lot of judgement.    
  


Some people took advantage of this. Whenever a new theory popped up about what would happen to you if you kissed someone before you found your Soulmate, the culprit was Minho 99% of the time. He took pride in coming up with the most ridiculous theories possible and making people believe them. Nothing was funnier to Minho than seeing the terror in someone’s eyes when he told them a limb would fall off every time they kissed someone.   
  
Minho was a dick, but he sure was creative.    
  
And ever since Brenda found her Soulmate, Gally, Minho had taken on a new hobby: trying to make his friends kiss each other to find out if they were Soulmates. Newt didn’t know if he was projecting his own absence of a Soulmate onto his friends, or if he just enjoyed torturing them, but either way, he wasn’t a fan of Minho’s attempts.

He’d tried to make Newt kiss someone several times now, but every time Newt had gotten out of it somehow.   
  
It didn’t look like he was going to find an excuse this time.   
  
“The Rules!” Minho exclaimed, standing in the middle of the circle and holding the empty soda bottle in the air. “You spin the bottle. The person it lands on, you have to kiss. You get one free pass when you’re spinning, and one when the bottle lands on you. So, two free passes in total. After that, you either  _ have _ to kiss the person you land on, or we get to decide your punishment. 

 

Everyone nodded. Newt looked around the circle; most people had a giddy look in their eyes. Frypan looked mildly disgusted, while Brenda looked more excited than necessary. Thomas’s face was indecipherable.

 

Minho had a smirk plastered on his face. He set down the bottle before sitting down himself. He then leaned forward, grabbed the bottle by the neck and swung it around.

 

It spun a few times, rolling to the side a little, before it finally slowed down and stopped spinning. The bottle pointed at Gally. 

  
“Pass.” Gally said immediately.    
  
Minho rolled his eyes. “You’re no fun.” he grumbled. Gally stuck out his tongue. 

  
Minho snorted. “You wanna pass that bad, you better put that tongue back in your mouth.” A few chuckles arose from the group, and Gally did as he was told, fighting the blush that was creeping up his neck as he shifted closer to Brenda.   
  
Gally then grabbed the bottle and spun it around just like Minho had done. Somehow, the bottle managed to point at Brenda. A smile appeared on her face before she leaned in, connecting her lips with Gally’s. A few  _ ooh’s _ and  _ aww’s  _ were uttered, but nothing too exciting- after all, Brenda and Gally were Soulmates. They were used to this.

 

“Okay, next!” Minho said as soon as Gally and Brenda separated. “Brenda, your turn.”    
  
Brenda nodded, the smile still plastered on her face, and spun the bottle. It twisted around a couple of times, before stilling and landing on none other than Newt himself. He glanced at Brenda, and at the sight of her grand smirk, he passed. Brenda huffed and leaned back against Gally’s arm, away from Newt.

  
Newt leaned forward and gave the bottle a shove, spinning it a few times, before it landed on Winston, who - _ thank God,  _ Newt thought- passed. 

 

As time went on, Newt zoned out, ignoring the names that were called. Every now and then he saw two people exchanging quick pecks, giggling softly, but Newt barely noticed. He didn’t particularly enjoy games like these. Sure, he’d find them fun in  _ other _ situations, had he not been so nervous about  _ one particular person _ in their group.

 

“Newt.”    
  
Newt’s head snapped up, his eyes flicking from person to person, only to see all eyes in the room locked on him. “What?”   
  
Next to him, Brenda nodded her head at the floor. Newt glanced over to see that the bottleneck was pointed at him.    
  
“Pass.” Newt mumbled absentmindedly, not even looking to see who the person was that spun the bottle.    
  
“You’re not getting away that easily.” Newt could  _ hear _ the grin in Minho’s voice. “You’ve already passed once. And so has Thomas.”    
  


Immediately, the boredom fogging up his brain cleared like snow before the sun. His eyes shifted to Thomas, who was sitting across the circle, staring at him. Their eyes locked, and Newt’s breath hitched in his throat when he could see hurt in Thomas’s warm eyes. 

  
“No, I didn’t mean-” Newt quickly tried, but Minho’s voice interrupted him. 

 

“Save your excuses for later! Newt, Thomas, are you guys gonna make out or do you want us to give you an order?”   
  


Thomas stood up. Newt could see his chest rising beneath his sweater in what could only be a deep breath to suppress any nerves. He crossed the distance between them and bent down, one knee on the floor so their eyes were leveled.   
  
“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to, okay?” Thomas told him in a hushed tone. “I won’t be offended, I promise. I know what you tried to say.”    
  
Newt felt his heart beating in his throat, suppressing any words he attempted to say. So instead, he just nodded.   
  
“So, do you want to try this? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, right?” Thomas asked him, the left corner of his mouth twitching up into a half-smile.   
  
_ What’s the worst that could happen? _ __   
__   
_ The stories could be true. You could not be my Soulmate. You  _ could _ be my Soulmate, but you’d be so disappointed. We could- _   
  
Newt pushed away the thoughts flying through his mind and locked them away in the back of his head.  __ Isn’t this what you’ve wanted all along?    
  
Newt swallowed. “Do you?”

 

He could feel his heart bursting through his ribs when Thomas nodded ever so slightly.   
  
Thomas raised his hand, his fingertips brushing along Newt’s cheek, the ghost of his touch turning Newt’s blood into liquid fire. He leaned in, Newt’s eyes fluttered shut, and when he could feel Thomas’s soft lips pressing onto his, the world around him fell away, turned dark, and his only light was Thomas’s fingers on his cheek, Thomas’s chapped, but soft lips on his, just Thomas, Thomas,  _ Thomas. _

 

When Thomas eventually pulled away to breathe, Newt couldn’t believe he’d ever deprived himself of such an experience because of fear. He could feel himself smiling, -obviously like a dumbass- but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. All the nervousness, the stress, it was all gone. He felt  _ free. _   
  
But when he opened his eyes, it was clear that Thomas didn’t feel the same.   
  
His brown eyes were blown wide in shock, his mouth hanging half open. He’d gone pale, the rosy cheeks he’d had before now a ghostly white.    
  
“Tommy?” Newt whispered, frowning slightly. Thomas’s eyes bored into him, his gaze feeling like little pin pricks whenever it moved across his skin.   
  
Thomas closed his mouth and looked over his shoulder. Newt only now realised the room had gone dead silent.    
  
“I gotta.. I’ll be right back,” Thomas stammered, pushing himself up from the floor and hurrying out of the room. His words and the sound of the front door slamming shut behind him hung in the air, sucking up the colour the festive house had had like a black hole.    
  
Newt’s gaze was locked on the ground where Thomas had been sat. He could still feel the warmth of his former presence, could still feel the fire racing through his veins, could still feel Thomas’s lips on his.    
  
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Newt muttered- he wasn’t even sure if he’d actually said the words, or if he’d just said them in his mind. He just knew he needed to  _ get out. _   
  
He rushed over to the front door, yanking it open. He searched the empty streets ahead of him, before his eyes eventually landed on a familiar figure underneath a dim street light.   
  
He stepped out into the thick snow, but didn’t feel the cold. All he felt was the urge to be at Thomas’s side. Newt’s legs moved through the icy layer, nearly stumbling once or twice in the process, but he kept himself up as he neared the lamppost.  

 

The street lantern cast down golden light upon Thomas, giving him an almost angelic look, standing out against the white snow. His back was to Newt, his head turned down to the ground. Newt stopped running, standing just a few feet away from Thomas.   
  
“Tommy?” he called out in a soft voice. Thomas lifted his head, but didn’t look at him. His heart sank, and he felt as if it had fallen into the snow, coldness creeping into his chest.  “Why did you run away?” he asked, slowly shuffling closer. 

 

He could see Thomas sigh.  “I’m sorry.”    
  
Newt frowned at the words. They’d been soft, muffled, barely audible, but to Newt, they were louder than anything he’d ever heard.  “Sorry for what?”

  
Thomas turned around. The rosiness had returned to his cheeks, and Newt could see him shivering in the cold.   
  
“Tommy, you’re freezing. Get over here,” Newt muttered, and he moved forward, wrapping his arms around Thomas’s trembling shoulders.    
  
Newt could feel the tension escaping Thomas’s muscles as he melted into his touch. Even though his skin was cold, there was still a certain warmth he always seemed to have- the same warmth he’d felt earlier at the fireplace. 

 

“I’m sorry, Newt. For everything.” Thomas mumbled into his chest, his voice muffled by Newt’s sweater. “I’m sorry that I kissed you. I’m sorry that I ran away. I’m sorry that I’m your.. your Soulmate.”    
  
Newt felt as if an icicle pierced his heart. He moved his hand to Thomas’s chin, pulling him up just enough so he could see his eyes. “Why would you be sorry for that?”    
  
“I don’t know, I just… God, this is embarrassing,” Thomas said, huffing out a humourless laugh.    
  
“It’s not, Tommy. You can tell me.” Newt assured him. He didn’t know when he’d gained this confidence, or if it even  _ was _ confidence. Thomas’s presence, his touch, his voice, it calmed him, made the world feel alright again.     
  


He hoped he could do the same for Thomas.   
  
“I just feel like.. like there was some sort of mistake made. Like I shouldn’t be your Soulmate. You’re incredible, and you deserve someone smarter, nicer, funnier…  _ better _ than me.” Thomas’s words made Newt’s heard sink- he didn’t realise Thomas, the guy he’d adored since the very beginning of their friendship, thought so lowly of himself. 

 

Thomas continued, “I’d thought about this before - hoped, even - but I never thought that it would be real, and I just thought this kiss would confirm that so I could move on, but.. well, we’re here now.” The words spilled out in one fell swoop, leaving both of them breathless. Thomas had cast his eyes down at the covered ground again, and he pulled himself out of their embrace, the distance between them feeling colder than the snow they were standing in ever could.

 

“And here I was thinking I was the oblivious idiot.” Newt chuckled, and Thomas looked up, confusion clear in his gaze. “Tommy, I’ve been feeling the exact same way ever since we met. I was  _ terrified _ to even  _ think _ about kissing you. Both because it could confirm we were Soulmates, and because it could tell us we weren’t.” Newt put up a cautious smile. “But I am  _ so _ glad that we are. Because I can’t imagine being with anyone else. This wasn’t a mistake. This is how it’s supposed to be.”    
  
Thomas’s frown vanished, and a smile slowly grew on his face. “Yeah. It is.”    
  
He slowly stepped forward again, closing the distance between them. The world immediately seemed to warm up again, getting brighter and brighter with every step.   
  
Their eyes locked again.  Thomas’ gaze filled with the same intensity as before, only it wasn’t because he was afraid this time. This time it was full of relief, determination, adrenaline. Newt breathed in before he leaned forward, and when their lips connected for a second time, he knew that this was where he was meant to be. 

 

They moved in unison: Thomas’s arms wrapped around his waist, Newt’s hand rested on Thomas’s cheek, his thumb moving along his cheekbone. Thomas pulled him closer, their chests touching, and Newt could feel Thomas’s heart thumping under his sweater.    
  
He had never felt more alive. 

 

When their lungs started screaming for air, they finally broke apart, their foreheads leaning against one another as they breathed in each others air. Newt managed to open his eyes just slightly, enough to see Thomas’s wide smile in the golden light.   
  
“Finally! Jesus, I can’t believe it’s taken you this long to figure this stuff out,” a voice echoed through the empty street. 

 

Newt looked over his shoulder to see their friends standing outside the house, wrapped in thick coats, scarves, and blankets. “What do you mean, ‘finally?’” he called back, and even though they were pretty far away, he could  _ feel _ Brenda rolling her eyes at them.   
  
“Are you serious? Gally and I didn’t even pine over each other as much as you two did. You should’ve seen the surprise on people’s faces when we told them you two weren’t officially together yet.” Brenda exclaimed, before Minho stepped forward.

 

“Get inside! It’s freezing cold out here. It’s not our fault if you get sick this year.” Minho yelled, before turning around and sprinting back into his house.   
  
The rest of their friends soon followed. 

 

Newt turned back to face Thomas, smiling at him. “What do you say, hm? Wanna go back inside?”   
  
Thomas nodded quickly, breathing out a laugh. “I think I’m gonna turn into an ice statue if we stay out here much longer.” He removed his arm from Newt’s waist and grabbed his hand instead, squeezing it ever so gently.     
  


Together, they waded through the snow. It had started flurrying again- thick flakes fell out of the sky, slowly covering their footsteps as they made their way back to the house. Newt looked at Thomas to see his dark hair was already covered with white specs, resembling a starry night sky. Newt couldn’t help but smile.

 

Thomas glanced at him, noticing his smile and matching it with a soft chuckle. “What?”    
  
Newt grinned and shook his head. “Nothing,” he muttered, reaching up and ruffling Thomas’s hair. The snowflakes fell down onto Thomas’s cheeks, moving the constellations from his hair to his face. Thomas just laughed and shook off the snow before stepping inside the warm house and closing the door behind them.

 

Newt couldn’t take his eyes off of Thomas when they were inside. They’d sat on the couch together, talking, while the game continued in the background.    
  
“I can’t believe we figured this out through such a stupid game.” Newt told Thomas with a grin. “Guess it’s not so stupid after all.” 

 

Thomas smiled. “I guess not,” he muttered, before leaning in and giving Newt a quick kiss again.   
  
Sure, Christmas with his friends was weird. Newt still wasn’t a fan of the games, his friends weren’t particularly good cooks so the dinner was never too special, and the gifts were pretty much all gag gifts because, well, they were gifted by his friends. He didn’t expect anything else.

 

Christmas at his friends’ was terrifying sometimes. Especially this year.   
  
But Newt wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> WHEW sooo there we goooo!! my submission for the Maze Runner Secret Santa 2018 is FINALLY DONE whew love finishing something at 3:30 in the morning 
> 
> SO to my giftee, I hope you liked it!!! (and everyone else too. of course)  
> Also, massive thanks to Dreams and Bridge for hosting this event!! This was a blast to do and you're both incredible for creating this!! Ily <33


End file.
